By Kemi Olaitan
The leader of the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, Ilana Omo Oodua, Emeritus Prof. Banji Akintoye, yesterday threw his weight behind the ongoing petition being pushed by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) for referendum.
Akintoye in a statement signed by him and made available to THISDAY yesterday by his Communications Manager, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, called on all Yoruba people within and outside Nigeria to sign the petition in order to aid the agitation for Yoruba Nation before the Nigerian Government and international bodies.
The renowned historian, who is also the chairman of NINAS, in the statement titled: ‘Towards the Yoruba Nation Referendum’, said the petition for the referendum is the first major step towards the conduct of a referendum that will make or mar the actualisation of sovereign Yoruba Nation from Nigeria.
He insisted that now is the time for the Yoruba people to move forward to accomplish Yoruba nation’s self-determination by holding a referendum, stating that a referendum is like a regular election at which people line up at voting stations to vote for a candidate.
According to him, “In a referendum, we will not be voting for a candidate; we will be voting to make a choice on a given proposition. That proposition will be: ‘I Want a Yoruba Republic Separate from Nigeria. Each voter will be able to vote Yes or No. That is the Yoruba Nation referendum.
“But we the Yoruba people need to take some steps before we can get to our referendum. The first step is to make a strong statement loud and clear that we want a referendum. The best peaceful way to make that statement is to circulate a petition among us that we want a referendum.
“Already, some patriots under the umbrella of NINAS have now started to circulate a petition that we Yoruba, Igbo, Niger/Delta and the Middle Belt want a referendum.”
Akintoye enjoined millions of Yoruba people to vote in support of the petition and sign for a Yoruba Nation to use it as a weapon to get a referendum, adding that the petition will also serve to pressurise the federal government to grant the referendum.
“Alternatively, we might take our petition to our state governments and demand that they should grant us our referendum. Since our state governments are our own elected governments, we have a much better chance to compel them to do what we will want. What we will need is intense pressure persistently applied. We must not take no for answer.“Finally, we can take our petition to the United Nations, and demand that they come and arrange our referendum. The United Nations has carried out referendums in many parts of the world. One such referendum made it possible for South Sudan to break away from the Republic of Sudan. Another made it possible for Timor Les to break away from Indonesia,” the professor stated.
